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The BCCI will reportedly allow the usage of a second dry ball to help counteract the dew factor in IPL 2025.
The BCCI will reportedly allow the usage of a second ball in IPL 2025. (Image: Sportzpics)
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have reportedly come to an understanding to introduce a new measure to help teams counteract the dew factor in the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League 2025.
According to a report by the Press Trust of India (PTI), the BCCI will allow the usage of a second ball in the second innings of a game after the 11th over.
A BCCI official clarified that this is not a rule change, but rather a collective agreement by the teams and the umpires.
It was also mentioned that the 2nd ball would be an old one that had wear and tear.
“This is not a rule change, it’s just an understanding for this year between teams and umpires. The changed ball will have wear and tear,” an official said.
Another report by Cricbuzz, mentions that the decision for using the second ball will be on the umpire to take the call and this would be in effect for primarily the night games.
It’s up to the umpires to determine whether the ball needs to be changed. They will decide based on the presence of dew,” a source explained.
This comes after the Indian Cricket Board reportedly decided to permit the use of saliva on the ball to help the pacers in what has been a batting-dominated format in recent times. The Indian pacer, Mohammed Shami had expressed his frustration on not being able to use saliva on the ball. He had requested that the BCCI consider it to make the game an even contest.
With teams easily going past the 200-run mark and the usage of an additional player via the impact player rule, bowlers have been going for runs left, right and centre since the introduction of the additional substitute.
In addition, the BCCI has also reportedly decided to allow the use of DRS to check decisions for height wides and wides outside the off-stump.
The BCCI will hope that the introduction of a second dry ball along with the other decisions will also help counteract the recent trend of teams preferring to chase considering the dew factor and help bring in a more even contest in the coming season.
The 2025 season of the IPL is set to begin on March 22 with the defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders set to take on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Eden Gardens on Saturday evening.